our Prince Imperial comes, And in his hands a lance, That erst he'll cross with German spears For glory and for France.

though now along the shade Where erst at will the grey-clad peasant strayed, Gleam war's discordant garments through the trees, And the red banner mocks the froward breeze; 1820.

Dreadful and dark, where never light is found: Into this hollow cave, by cruel hest Of King Tancred, were divers servants sent To work the horror of his furious breast, Erst nourish'd in his rage, and now stern bent To have the same perform'd.

Up through the gates they bore her Christalan, Dressed in the garments of the neophyte, That erst were spotless white, but then were soiled, Bedraggled and dust-stained.

I see my forehead crowned With a coronal of faces, Where the gleam of living graces Each to other keeps them bound; Leaning forward in a throng, I the centre of their eyes, Voices mute, that erst in song Stilled the heart from all but sighs Now in thirsty draughts they take At open eyes and ears, the Truth Spoken for their love and youth Hot, alas!

You would wonder that an unarmed guard and sentinels that slept could defend a city that was stored with all the glories of art, that was rich in gold and bronze, a haughty city that had erst oppressed its neighbours, whose people had forgotten the art of war.

There were seven angels erst

DEDICATION Ye wavering shapes, again ye do enfold me, As erst upon my troubled sight ye stole; Shall I this time attempt to clasp, to hold ye? Still for the fond illusion yearns my soul?

strand I come, where erst we disembark'd, Still giddy from the roll of ocean's billowy surge, Which, through Poseidon's favor and through Euros' might, On lofty crested backs hither hath wafted us, From Phrygia's open field, to our ancestral bays.

Fell on mine ear no sound of busy servitors, No stir of rapid haste, officious, met my gaze; Before me there appeared no maid, no stewardess, Who every stranger erst, with friendly greeting, hailed.

It would be with him also, as erst with the Castellan of Couci, who having his Love fast only in his heart, told over in his song, Ah, God, strong Love, I sit and weep alone, Remembering the solace that was given; The tender guise, the semblance that was shown By her, my friend, my comrade, and my Heaven.

Jupiter took him to heaven, and made him the constellation Sagittarius. ... as Chiron erst had done To that proud bane of Troy, her god-resembling son [Achilles].

Appointed to decide the contention between Cuddy and Lobbin Clout. From Cloddipole we learn to read the skies, To know when hail will fall, or winds arise; He taught us erst the heifer's tail to view, When struck aloft that showers would straight ensue.

" Yet Nature, ever buoyant, ever young, If let alone, will sing as erst she sung; The course of circumstance gives back again The Picturesque, erewhile pursued in vain; Shows us the fount of Romance is not wasted The lights and shades of contrast not exhausted.

There is much likelihood, Such bandits did in England erst abound, When polity was young.

In one of Lowell's most striking poems he pictures the sad retrospect of one who, through fourscore years, had wasted on ignoble ends God's gift of life; his hands had "plucked the world's coarse gains As erst they plucked the flowers of May;" but what now, in life's last hours, are gains like these?

Two white rob'd cherub sisters Stand harping by her side; A brother in the concert joins, Who erst in Jesus died.

This soil we have created for ourselves, By the hard labor of our hands; we've changed The giant forest, that was erst the haunt Of savage bears, into a home for man; Extirpated the dragon's brood, that wont To rise, distent with venom, from the swamps; Rent the thick misty canopy that hung Its blighting vapors on the dreary waste; Blasted the solid rock; across the chasm Thrown the firm bridge for the wayfaring man.

" Why these usually long, lean, lank, saffron-hued, erst-while clay-eaters have received such an unromantic name has been variously accounted for.

Married to one of these ample-waisted Bahama women, the erst-while rambler and adventurer proved that rolling stones sometimes become suitable foundations for homeshe lived faithfully with the same wife for fifty-one years.

Might it yet be some day that on my threshold I should find her, as erst, in the morning twilight, Her traveler's bundle beside her, And her eye true-heartedly looking up to me, Saying, "See, I've come back, Back once more from the lonely world!"

That the Holy Spirit, which erst did brood O'er the Son of Man by Jordan's flood, In thine own pure form to the eye of sense, From its resting place has departed hence, And twitters the swallow, and wheels the bat O'er the mercy-seat where its presence sat?

Bright promise of the glad return Of glowing fires that erst did burn On hearths long desolate!

Bright promise of the glad return Of glowing fires that erst did burn On hearths long desolate!

Sad echoes of unequal strife, Go sighing through the aftermath, That skirts the dark uncertain path, That leads me to the close of life; And years ago dark shadows fell Athwart the amber sky of youth, Blighting the bloom of hope and truth, That erst had blossom'd all too well.